The Portland daily press., 1887-05-17
GETTYSBURG.
Something More About the Work OF
the Commission.
An Interesting Conversation With
Gen. 3. =. Harris.
A Visit to Fredericksburg and the
Wilderness Battlefield.
Especial to the Press.1

/ AOOOclAY u1dJ WAY ptsooSAOOio .
who alighted from the western train at Au-
| gusta last Saturday night was General B. f.
| Harris The lapel of his coat was plenti-
fully adorned with patriotic badges. and
largest of them all was the Greek Cross of
the old Sixth Army Corps. General Harris
was just getting home from the work of the
Gettysburg commission and from a tour to
the Wilderness battlefield. Speaking of the
Gettysburg work, he said:
The State of Maine made her appropria-
tl0n Tor monuments ncne too soon, Maine
troops were on all the famous places in that
held, and earned the places that their monu-
ments Will occupy. But that cannot be said
OF the regiments of other States. They
nave been crowding their monuments into
Ihe famous places, and if Maine had delayed
her appropriation a while longer the other
states would have had all the locations that
our boys made historic. Now there is the
place where the Seventeenth fought in the
Wheat Field. We found on that very spot
stake driven for the monument of regiment
from another State. But when Colonel Mer-
ri told the story of his regiment and pointed
its position out, it settled the matter. No
one doubted that the place by the stake be-
llonged to the Seventeenth. Then there is
Round Top, where the Twentieth took pos
session on the night of the second day right
IN the face and eyes of the rebels. The
1AuhbiNU anu NlnCbttubll ItuHS1lNdDld
have put up a big monument up there. Cen
eral Chamberlain said when he saw it that
he didn't know but the Twentieth would
have to give in that they were not ON Round
Top after all. Now will tell you just what
claims the 10th Pennsylvania has to place
on Round Top. They were brigaded with
us and know all about what they did. On
the night OF the third day. after Pickett had
been repulsed and the battle was over, they
went up onto Round Top and slept there.
OFT IF haf 4hoxx hoxro
their monument. l understand though that
many OF the regiment were opposed to such
an assumption, and that it was done only by
majority vote. We felt inclined to chaff
some OF their boys whom we saw on the
trip about it, but they were good, brave fell
lows in the war and we refrained. OF course
many of the places ON the battle ground
were occupied and fought for by different
regiments at different times but the DISPOSE
tlon TO put monuments in prominent places
often surpasses the anxiety to have the
monuments where the regiments did their
best work. The Maine commission, how
ever, will have their monuments on the
places where the troops did their best, and
those places are among the most important
on the field"
General Harris says that great efforts have
been made to keep the battlefield just as it
was at the time of the fight. But nature will
have its way, and his feelings he describes
as very strange when, on visiting places
that he well remembers were covered only
with few bushes on those terrible days in
'63, he found groves of tall trees. And where
groves sheltered his comrades from the
July sun that looked three times on the fight
a quarter of century ago, to-day are open
helds. But in spite of these changes the
positions are readily recognizable. General
Harris says that Colonel Heath, of the Nine
teenth, was able to drive a stake on the very
spot where he fell wounded when Pic1ett's
charge struck his regiment Colonel Merrill
found readily the spots where men in his
regiment fell
AS in most other places of note, the fell
lows with relics to sell are very numerous
at Gettysburg. As the Maine commission
were driving over the field the first day they
passed group of laborers shoveling dirt by
the roadside. All of sudden two of the
men dropped their shoyels, and grabbing
into the dirt drew. out two handfuls of
bullets. There were relics for you. But
Colonel Edwards, who knows something
about bullets and has had his wisdom
matured by politics. sang out: "You can't
play that trick. You have carried those
~NAtNsS Al JOul POShCbo lOL d UlUubll, lllbY
are smooth"
After the work of the Commission had
been done, its members separated many of
them going South to revisit other battle
fields. General Harris went to the Wilder
ness, where the survivors of the old Sixth
Corps dedicated monument to General
Sedgwick, on the spot where the old hero
fell. They went first to Fredericksburg.
From there it is about fifteen miles to the
Wilderness. There were three hundred vet
erans of tine Sixth Corps, and as there was
no railroad to the field, they had to be car
rled In teams over very poor roads. These
teams alone made gr eat procession, and
then the whole country, black and white,
turned out Most of them were on foot and
all marching for the Wilderness. 1t was a
great day in that region. The Wilderness is |
as it was in the days of Grants campaiyn.-
wilderness. Narrow wood roads, many of
them made first by the Union army. inter |
sect the old battlefield. The rifle pits and
earthworks still remain. The Sedgwick
monument stands right in the woods. IT
seemed too bad, General Harris said. to
come away and leave so handsome thing
crowds of Southerners attended the dedica-
tion and were very interested observers
There is no lack Of relics in the Wilder
ness. Kick up the dirt almost anywhere
and you can find bullets, grape shot, old cam
teens, pieces of cartridge boxes and other
equipments dropped in the fight. While the
veterans were there a farmer in ploughing
where some of the bloodiest fighting took
place, turned up a Union soldier. The
blanket in which his comrades had wrapped
him for hasty burial, was still wound
tightly around him. His beard, which was
long and flowing as beftted a man of his |
large stature, yet remained, and in the fore
head was peculiar bullet wound.
His features and form were eagerly scanned
by the veterans of the Sixth Corps, and very
strange as it may seem there were those who
remembered him as their old comrade of the
Twenty-fifth Pennsylvania. More than 20
years ago they had laid him back behind the
battle line to die from wound in the fore
head, and when his sufferings were over had
wrapped him in his blanket and buried him
in an unmarked grave. The Identification
was as nearly perfect as possible. With a
statement of facts the body was taken to the
National cemetery at Fredericksburg to be
buried at last in a grave no longer unknown.
OF the Southern people, General Harris
says they most of them yet have the ''dirty
rebel look" He means by that to describe
their clothing. OF the wondering crowds of
blacks and whites who focked to see the
Sedgwick monument many had hardly
cloths enough to cover their nakedness.
This was especially noticeable among the
negroes. The brass band that the veterans
brought with them was great wonder. The
crowd nearly went wild with delight when
it would strike up. General Harris said that
young men of % or % years. who were there
with their sweethearts, said that in all their
lives before they had never heard a band.